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Project "Fala Porto Alegre 156"
Municipal Secretary of Local Governance - City Hall of Porto Alegre
Brazil

The Problem

The problem found was that a great number of citizens that they could not request the municipal utilities through call centers to the citizens of the City Hall.
In May 2010, 40% of phone calls for the centrals were lost or refused. The time of services was insufficient, as the number of assistants, and several phone numbers for many call centers by phone (118 transit, 115 for water and sewage, 153 for vandalism, taxes for 3289-0140, 0800 to 156 itself to tourism and other services). Failure to comply immediately caused the citizen to perform several phone calls to be answered.
It was observed that by not being met by phone, there was the need for citizens move up the municipal office to request the service they wished, resulting in lost time and causing unnecessary travel costs.
Failure to comply with phone calls reached all social groups, though the poorest ended up spending more time or additional expenses have to drive to the municipal departments.
We also noticed that the municipal departments used various systems that did not work interconnected or integrated, making interventions that required more than one municipal department performed.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
The guidelines established for the project were:
a) Centralization of services provided to citizens by telephone through a preferred phone number: 156
b) Use of a unique corporate computer system: FALA PORTO ALEGRE (speak or talks Porto Alegre)
Missed calls accounting for 40% (May 2010) dropped to 1% in the first month of implementation of the centralized 156 (March 2011).
In research, the rate of people who knew of the existence of the 156 phone number has tripled in eight months, 11% (December 2010) to 33% (August 2011). Asked if they had used at least once the phone number 156, 24% (August 2011) of citizens of Porto Alegre said yes, quadrupling the number was 6% (December 2010). As the quality of telephone service through the phone number 156, 32% (December 2010) responded as bad and terrible, but the percentage decreased to half in the search of August 2011 being 16%.
Generally all citizens of Porto Alegre have benefited from the centralization of services phone number 156, since the records began to be made requests in a single system and the corporate “FALA PORTO ALEGRE”, providing that the demands are met in the same way FIFO, that is, a first-come first-served basis.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The design guidelines were established by Mayor José Fortunati (April 2010). The project design was carried out by staff of the Municipal Governance and the Office of Strategic Planning, led by Cezar and Izabel Busatto Matte, respectively, which held several meetings between the leadership and supervision of call centers in the municipality and the municipal departments using the system "FALA PORTO ALEGRE". Adding to the project the state-owned Data Processing Municipality (Procempa) specify the unit of Contact Center (August 2010), having been made the bidding and purchasing by the Municipal Finance (September 2010).
The Unified Contact Center began operating the 156 experimentally in December 2010, with the executive manager Marcelo Costa, and being operated by a team of telephony Procempa. In February 2011, the project was presented to the Mayor and approved the logo developed by the Coordination of Social Communication.
From March 2011, went into operation of the central departments: traffic (EPTC), water and sewage (DMAE), vandalism (Home Guard), taxes (Finance), tourism (Smtur) and other public services (Governance).
In August 2011, the Mayor has made available to the council members system "FALA PORTO ALEGRE" so they could monitor the service and register the demands that come to their offices.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Main objectives established by Mayor José Fortunati:
a) Center serving the citizens through a single phone number: 156
b) Establish a single corporate system for recording, monitoring and control of the demands of services requested: FALA PORTO ALEGRE
Strategies defined by the Secretary of Governance Cezar Busatto and Coordinator of the Office of Strategic Planning Izabel Matte:
a) Validation of the project by the Committee on Technology, Information and Communication of the City
b) Project approval by the Mayor
c) Approval of the resources required by the Management Committee of the second. Instance (body responsible for release of budgetary resources)
d) Alignment of the secretaries who command call centers
e) Alignment of the secretaries who command departments executors
Methodology applied by the project's executive manager Marcelo Costa:
a) Review meetings with the managers of call centers
b) Review meetings with the leadership of the system users FALA PORTO ALEGRE
c) Alignment of the advisory communication from all departments of the Municipality
d) Presentation of the Management Committees of the City of Strategic Programs
e) Definition with the executing agencies for services the quantitative demands and ability to execute
f) Evaluating the need for human resources, budgeting and information technology to perform the services required
g) Monitoring and responding to requests made by other channels (in the press clipping, twitter, facebook and other social networks)
h) Meeting with leaders of purposive actions of the City's Strategic Programs
i) Review of the array: proceedings of each term of service for each department
j) Review of the array: range of services for each zone wharfage
k) Recycling system users

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The main pillars were established: improving the quality of municipal utilities and more intersections among the municipal departments.
The implementation steps of the project were:
a) Diagnosis of the situation encountered (April-July 2010)
- Call center equipment
- System for recording requests
- Human resources
- Departments that provide the services requested
- Phone service performed
b) Analysis and establishment of standards to be adopted (August and September 2010)
c) Purchases of equipment and installation (in October and November 2010)
d) Improvements and new features of the system FALA PORTO ALEGRE (October 2010 to February 2011) and training of users
e) The operation of Contact Centre trial (December 2010 to February 2011)
f) Operation of the contact center and synchronization with the FALA PORTO ALEGRE (March 2011)
g) Process monitoring for continuous improvement of cases (April-December 2011) and acculturation in the City Hall in the use of 156
h) Procedure for the universalization of the use of the system FALA PORTO ALEGRE to all departments of the City (2012)

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main internal obstacles that were overcome:

a) Resistance of the unification of the phone number in attendance for 156 call centers. With the fear of losing power, the center held its entry into the 156, however with the explanations given and the implementation of technology, especially as the availability of management reports and online monitoring, city officials began to integrate into new set.

b) Resistance of the finalistic departments in adopting the system FALA PORTO ALEGRE. With the fear of being controlled externally, the departments had difficulty working with the system, but with the firmness necessary to the Mayor determined that all services could be booked by telephone and recorded on the 156 by system FALA PORTO ALEGRE. Thus, the department began using the system itself.

The main external obstacles that were overcome:

a) Citizens have come to believe in phone service, since the departments have also begun to produce better results, knowing that in the first half of 2011 50% of requests were met within 60 days, the rate had risen to 75% in the second half of 2011.

b) The press, journalists and columnists who received complaints from citizens for municipal services unrealized began to rely on City Hall and require citizens to inform the protocol number of the requested service through the system FALA PORTO ALEGRE, as some citizens complained to the news media about services not met, though they had never complained at City Hall.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The financial resources of released were $ 70 thousand (dollars) in the purchase of equipment for the Unified Contact Center number 156, and $ 100 thousand (dollars) in the maintenance and development of the FALA PORTO ALEGRE. The resources originate from its own budget to City Hall.
The main benefits can be stated:
a) Minimization of lost calls to 156 (increased from 40% in May 2010 to 1% in April, 2011).
b) reducing the waiting time for answering a call on 156 (reduced from 180 / 2 in May 2010 for 10 / 2 in April 2011).
c) Need to know only one phone number to request services for the City Hall (156).
d) Protocol single request for registration services at City Hall by phone (number provided by the system FALA PORTO ALEGRE). The number of protocols increased from 146,000 (in 2010) to 243,000 (in 2011).
e) Increase the number of requests serviced in 60 days, up from 50% (first half of 2011) to 75% (second half of 2011).

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
It is understood that the implementation of the fundamentals, the project objectives and methodology FALA PORTO ALEGRE can be applied in other cities, because sustainability encompasses diverse views, it optimizes and organizes resources cases, especially with the vision of centralization of care through a single number and to be used for a corporate system for all municipal departments.
Due to the dissemination of the project FALA PORTO ALEGRE 156 the portal of the Municipality of Porto Alegre, several cities have shown interest in knowing the project as the project was presented at conferences and seminars for Public Administration in Brazil.
The project is characteristic of sustainability:
- Financial and economic because it reduces and optimizes budget resources.
- Social and cultural, as it gives a universal treatment to all demands.
- Environmental, due to a request by a phone call produces lower energy costs than the displacement of citizens to City Hall to register their demand.
- Institutional and regulatory framework, because it produces a unique identity and standard for all services conducted by the City.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The main impacts are the aver by the project monitoring indicators, which are:

a) Ensuring that the citizens will communicate with the City through the call center (loss or rejected calls fell from 40% to 1%)

b) Telephone service fast, from 180 to 10 seconds of waiting time, providing that the citizens do not have their time wasted on waiting to be serviced

c) Increased confidence in the system, since the number of protocols increased by 70% (146,000 in 2010 to 243,000 in 2011)

d) Increased share of the population that knows about the project, since tripled the percentage of citizens who know the telephone service for 156 (11% to 33%)

e) Increased number of people to seek services at 156, because that quadrupled the percentage of citizens who have used at least once 156 (6% to 24%)

f) Improved assessment of customer service to the citizen, for the bad-bad index fell by half from 32% to 16%

g) Improved services finalistic, since the number of messages and phone contacts with thanks and praise from increased

The lessons learned can be said that the commitment of top leadership, in this case, the Mayor was very important for the continuity and success of the project, as well as the intersections among the municipal departments.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Municipal Secretary of Local Governance - City Hall of Porto Alegre
Institution Type:   Government Department  
Contact Person:   Marcelo Neubauer da Costa
Title:   Eng.  
Telephone/ Fax:   55 51 32893655
Institution's / Project's Website:   www.falaportoalegre.com.br
E-mail:   projeto@falaportoalegre.com.br  
Address:   Praca Montevideo, 10
Postal Code:   90010-170
City:   Porto Alegre
State/Province:   RS
Country:   Brazil

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